In addition to having advanced computing and connectivity capabilities to facilitate high-speed data communication, many modern mobile devices include a variety of sensors. For example, mobile devices, such as smartphones, tablets, and wearable computing devices, are often equipped with sensors for imaging and positioning. A few examples of sensors that may be found in a mobile device include accelerometers, gyroscopes, magnetometers, barometers, global positioning system (GPS) receivers, microphones, cameras, Wi-Fi sensors, Bluetooth sensors, temperature sensors, and pressure sensors, among other types of sensors.
The wide variety of available sensors enables mobile devices to perform various functions and provide various user experiences. As one example, a mobile device may use imaging and/or positioning data to perform an odometry process (i.e., determining a position and orientation of the mobile device in an environment). As another example, a mobile device may use imaging and/or positioning data to generate a 2D or 3D map of an environment, or determine a location of a mobile device within a 2D or 3D map of an environment. As yet another example, a mobile device may use imaging and/or positioning data to facilitate augmented reality applications. Other examples also exist.